Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Food

I love food. I love looking at pictures of food, but most of all I love making food...and eating it. One of the best and worst things about this time of year is the food. There are so many delicious recipes that start popping up on Facebook and in the newspaper that it's torture for those of us who are trying not to gain fifty pounds by New Years. I can't go five minutes online without someone posting a new recipe or a picture of the goodie they just made or plan to make.

When I was young my dad used to make what we called, Christmas punch. It was a beverage made with orange juice, cherry Kool-Aid, mashed bananas, sprite, and several other ingredients that I can't think of right now. It was one of those things that said Christmas to me. It still does. My mom used to make these round cookies rolled in powdered sugar every year. I never knew what they were called, but I loved them. I'm not sure she did it as a Christmas tradition, but it seemed that way to me.

The last few years on my husband's side we have been making a Christmas dish from another country to bring and share on Christmas Eve which has been fun. This year my husband picked Russia for our family. (Which I find funny because he isn't the one who makes the dish, I am. So shouldn't I be the one to pick? I guess that's a discussion for later tonight ;)

Anyway, I didn't have a clue what to make. I Googled, Russian Christmas recipes and up popped a recipe for Russian Christmas Tea Cakes. To my surprise these are the same "cookies" that my mom makes. Who would have guessed. Also, there was a recipe for Russian Spice Tea. This was also a recipe I was familiar with because it's something my husband's mother gave to her children when they had a cold or sore throat.

Why am I writing about this? I guess because I want to encourage people to find out the history of their favorite foods and traditions. It might surprise you where they originated from.